During surgical operations or other procedures, a portion of the body upon which surgery is being conducted may be substantially immobilized, such as, for example, a patient's head during head or neck surgery. Such immobilization of a patient's head, for example, may be accomplished with a fixture such as head fixation device in the form of a skull clamp, halo, or other form. It may be desirable to have one or more surgical accessories or additional fixtures securely attached or mounted close at hand during the procedure. In some circumstances, it may be desirable and convenient to have such accessories or fixtures mounted directly to the fixture used for immobilization. In addition, it may be desirable to permit the selective attachment and/or adjustment of such accessories or fixtures. Of course, such features are not required. Also, it may be desirable and convenient that the fixture is compatible with certain imaging techniques and devices both in terms of modality and imaging equipment configurations, e.g. gantry size, etc.
While a variety of fixtures and accessories for attaching to fixtures have been made and used, it is believed that no one prior to the inventor(s) has made or used an invention as described herein.
The drawings are not intended to be limiting in any way, and it is contemplated that various embodiments of the invention may be carried out in a variety of other ways, including those not necessarily depicted in the drawings. The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention; it being understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the precise arrangements shown.